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I’ve been thinking about how Parallels has said they are working on DirectX and 3D support for their VM software for the Mac. The basic reason for doing this is so people can play games. Sure, there are some other Windows-only 3D apps out there that people want to use on the Mac, but games is where most people would use this tech. So, I’m just wondering… could Parallels package this “special sauce” with WINE and make a compatibility layer for individual programs to run on the Mac? Just think if Parallels could license this out so that a game developer could release a Windows-only game with the WINE configuration files so that it would install and run correctly on the Mac.

I’ve heard all the arguments about how such a proposition might end game development for the Mac platform and I don’t think it matters. For other classes of software, people will want the OS specific hooks that come with a good Mac application – applescript, growl, iApps integration, keychain, etc. But with games, people don’t care about how the software interacts with the rest of the OS – they just want to play the game.

If Parallels can solve the Direct3D puzzle on the Mac, they should buy Crossroads and license out this Mac-compatibility sauce and get a piece of every single PC game sold from here on out.